Swim was okay for me without the wetsuit, not fast though(!). I couldnít see anything so I think I took the first 500m too easy from uncertainty.

Edit: or maybe I got a little lost

My head was cooking in the heat, Probably should have reassessed my helmet choice. Caught a flat on a bend at around 40mph downhilling Fordham which spooked me. That took forever to fix which took the wind out of my sails, but it was the heat that did for me. Stopped twice just to take off the helmet and cool down. 4hrs22 on the bike with all the faffing about, feeling sick and dizzy so called it a day rather than suffer the run.

I went out yesterday and went from 34..33...32...31...30! Kph average!
I took two litres and bought two more!
Cramped on hunters and went home ...
Less than four hours and crap average speed.
We're just not used to this heat.
The run would have been torture, live to fight another day, chapeau all those racing in Germany! 30+!
_________________Keep Triing

that was a brutally hot day for everyone - especially those racing. sorry for the wetsuit ban but I had little option given that I couldn't find water cooler than 25.6C.

I was expecting more DNFs given the heat but most of those crossing the finish seemed OK so must have heeded the advice to take lots of fluid on board.

I saw the first few Bastion finishers in - female race had a near sprint finish with Lucy Biddlestone snatching the win by 4 secs after being behind all the way until the finishing straight - and headed home about 6:30 after 2 long days there.

overall - feedback was good and I think we managed to put on a good Champ event
_________________And the lord said unto John; "come forth and receive eternal life." But John came fifth and won a toaster.

Yes it was nice to meet you @fat buddha and the wetsuit ban made sense. A few people were complaining but it is what it is, and not exactly surprising given the weather. Not a concern for me though.

I was also surprised the people finishing didnít look worse - more evidence it was my poor planning/execution. I had water in the morning, water in T1, and a bottle per aid station of water with Zero electrolytes added. But given my history of dehydration in the full distance I guess I need two bottles/station and a more vented helmet than a Giro Advantage.

I also saw @toyota crown, there was one other cyclist on the road but Iím pretty sure it was my struggling form he yelled ďYou need to up your game, mate!Ē - and quite right he is Dehydration aside, I donít think I can hold the candle for Intensity/TrainerRoad much more, Iím going to have to revert to the long bike hours I had so much (relative) success with in 2016.

The conditions played a huge part in my result, nearly 7 hours racing in that heat, no wonder I had nothing left in the last 10k.

Swim was wetsuit banned as the water hit 26. I seem to slow down a lot compared to with wetsuit, thought I'd do around 40 mins with, so maybe 45 without. Ended up with a 47 minute split, happy enough with that.

Bike was 90km (2x45km laps) with 1500m of climbing i.e. very hilly for a tri. Watch died on me as I came out of the water, so I had no idea on how fast I was going or HR, had to race on feel. Lap 1 1h40, total 3h24, pretty much bang on what I thought was sensible for me. Was managing some GI issues at the start which took a while to settle. Not had a race with feed stations on the bike, so rolling through and grabbing bottles/bananas etc. was novel for me.

Run 2x10.5k laps, nearly all trail with plenty of ups and downs, some shade but some very exposed sections. Decided from the off to walk up hills and stop at aid stations. Lap 1 was 1.06.50, so way slower than normal but reasonable. Lap 2, I had nothing left, managed to hobble/walk round in 1.18.30. Felt like I walked over half the lap with my run sections getting steadily shorter.

Sat in a deckchair for a while at the finish cooling down and getting my emotions under control. Extremely glad to have finished and confident I had nothing left to give.

Some lessons, I probably didn't respect the distance enough, not enough long bike rides (3 hours plus), not enough bike to run. The conditions!!!!! The heat and more heat and yet more heat, I'm just not used to it. During the race I swore off anything longer than olympic distance tris. I may re-evaluate that decision but for now, I'm going to stick to running with swimming for x-training.